Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice

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I am sitting in my office going over my last assignment report with Maggie when Wade walks in with the pale chocolate haired girl that I had chosen for my Fledgling team and one of his Fledgling girls.

"Um, should I come back later?" Maggie begins to get up from her seat and pushes her square framed glasses further up her nose.

"Yes, we can do this tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning." I smile up at her and hand her the iPad with my report entry. I wait until she is gone and turn to Wade and the Fledgling girls. I rise from my seat, walk around to the other side of the desk and perch myself on the corner.

"Where are your shoes, Jen?" Wade asks, frowning quizzically at my bare feet.

"You know I don't like wearing shoes. But that isn't important right now. What the hell is going on?" At this point, my Fledgling decides to speak up.

"We were assigned the same room. I told her that I wanted the top bunk and she just attacks me!" She is looking at the other girl with clear contempt.

"What are your names?" I ask them, looking from girl to girl and quickly becoming impatient when they don't immediately answer. "Well? What are your names? Do not make me ask you again."

"Cameron Lewis." My Fledgling is the first to answer me, but Wade's girl stays silent.

"Cameron, you're free to go. Take whichever bunk you want." Cameron turns and practically runs for the door. Good thing she knows to do as she's told. I am left with Wade and the nameless Fledgling. I turn slowly and pull my laptop around to face me. My laptop is full of Skyline files, so I have to click around a little before I find the Fledgling list. Her name is Freya Wilson, she is seventeen years old and has been running from foster families for years.

"Look, Freya. I really want to give every Fledgling a chance here, but you heard what the group was told. The company is deleting five of you anyway, do you think they'll object to adding another to the list?" I can hear pleading in my own voice, but she clearly doesn't want help from me. Then I hear the worst sound that you can possible hear in the Skyline building. The intercom.

"Agent 7392, please report to Tyler Walker and bring Fledgling Wilson with you." The speaker in my office needs replacing soon, the crackling is becoming annoying.

"You've done it now." I sigh and slip into my boots. Before we leave I have to grab my gun and slip it into the waistband of my jeans, Freya may be quiet, but she looks like the type to try and run.

Freya follows me and Wade out of my office and down corridor. 

"What do you think he wants?" Wade murmurs as we head towards the elevator.

"I don't know. But I can guess." 

We arrive at Tyler's office, five floors beneath mine, and Wade has to leave us. 

"Just, don't speak, don't look him straight in the eye and stay close to me. As awful as you may think I am, Tyler is a hundred times worse." I warn her, though she continues to look at me with the same blank expression. I push the door open and lead Freya inside.

"You know we don't accept Freya's behaviour in our Fledglings. You should have called up here as soon as you heard what had happened." Tyler is still sitting in his seat as he talks, making him seem all the more careless. He has this look on his wormy little face that is telling me exactly what he is going to do. 

"I'm so sorry, Freya." I breath, placing a hand on her arm as I turn to leave the room. 

"The Fledgling she was fighting with will take her place in Wade's group. We have another group of five coming in a few days, you can choose one of them." Tyler announces, giving me my cue to leave. One last glance at Freya and I have to go. That is the worst part of my job. Knowing that she is about to die, but not being able to stop it is the thing that really makes me hate myself. Wade is waiting around the corner for me.

"She's being deleted?" He asks, though he already knows the answer.

"Yeah." I sigh head for the elevator. For today, I need to get out of here. But tomorrow is a new day.

*** *** ***

The buzz of my alarm clock wakes me and I roll out of bed with only one thing on my mind: coffee. I pad into the kitchen wearing nothing but a way too big baseball jersey that I once borrowed from Wade and never gave back. I pour myself a cup of coffee from the pot before I realise that there is coffee in the pot. Why is there coffee in this pot? I catch a slight movement in the corner of my eye and whirl around to face my intruder.

"Oh my God!" I gasp at the sight of Maggie and Wade, both sitting on my kitchen counter and smiling at me. "How many times do I have to say it?" I ask with clenched teeth. They both get the message and slide back down onto their feet. 

"Is that my shirt?" Wade asks, reaching across to tug at the shoulder.

"Yes. What do you want?" It's too early for me to play Wade's annoying games.

"You have an assignment." Maggie informs me, handing me her iPad with the details entered. 

"Surveillance?" I'm never put on this kind of assignment. But, just like before when I was told to pick a team, I remember that it is not my place to ask questions. I run into my room and change into my 'normal girl' clothes that are set aside for surveillance assignments. A light pink tank top, denim shorts, a black leather jacket and some converse sneakers. The jacket is the only part of the outfit that offers me any protection, with an armoured layer and an inbuilt gun holster. I run back out into the kitchen and grab my bag, then walk around the living room filling it with everything I'm going to need. Wallet, cell phone, keys, my 6mm pistol (though I like the 9mm better), a couple of spare mags, silencer, camera and my latest copy of Vogue. I push my earpiece into my ear and we're ready to go. Maggie heads back to Skyline while Wade and I head to our watch point, a small convenience store on the corner of South 17th Street. The streets of Philadelphia are my favourite place, especially after it's rained. The freshly washed city smell is all it takes to relax me, so today is the perfect day for me to be hanging around on the street.

We stand outside the store for around half hour before Wade gets bored. It's a surprise because usually I'm the impatient one, but he runs inside to grab a newspaper. when he brings it out, I see the front page. I'm not one for reading newspapers, so big headlines like this really catch my eye. But my eyes close in on a computer generated impression of a young woman. Suddenly I am blanking everything out. Wade senses my distress and places a reassuring hand on my arm.

"What's the matter, Jen?" He asks, concern clouding his face.

"That girl on the front page." I point to the girl and Wade's eyes widen, he sees it too, "That girl is..." I pause again, unable to believe what I'm seeing, "That girl is me."